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Group Birthday Cruise

Sail Date:
August 2011

Destination:
Mexican Riviera

Embarkation:
Los Angeles

If you were on board with us, I'm sure you either heard us or saw us do something load or embarassing sometime during the week. We all had a blast, though I was the one "shark" that ended up in a wheel chair after day 2...trying to "get down with my bad self" on the dance floor in the Red Carpet Club during our private party on Tuesday night. One of the group made us all shark hats which we wore around the ship, we got many requests that folks wanted to buy one but could not find them in the gift shop....a restaurant owner in Cabo actually bartered one off one of us for a nice collared shirt with the restaurant logo. Embarkation went extremely smoothly, my wife and I arrived at 11:00am getting zone 4 cards which had us on board by 12:15 eating lunch in the Lido. Layed around the rear adult pool with first drinks until around 1:45 when we got to our room on first floor ocean view midship. We have always had balconies, however we've done this itinerary twice before with our children so More
we didn't mind not having a balcony. Also, be aware the climate in Cabo and P.V. is soooo humid in summer we'd have spent very little time on a balcony anyways.

Food was quite good in dining room, but were not "wowed" by anything (save the chocolate melting cake). Service in the dining room disappointed us because our group of 16 were split up into a table for 9 and table for 7, which would have been fine, except we had different serving staff. One table would have great service while the other table would be waiting for the entre while the other had finished dessert. It was discussed multiple times but never got better. Some of us ate in the Pinnicle Steak restaurant on Thursday night and were very happy we spent the extra money....the meal and service were exceptional.

We booked a private event (Carnival provided a lovely cheese tray for us)in the Red Carpet dance club Tuesday evening and were having a great time tearing up the place. Security actually had to come tell people to stop dancing on the bar. We had a conga line, crazy party hats for all and everyone was having a wonderful time. Then the group did a "dance challenge" game where they call your name and challenge you to "show us how to get down".....I got down too low and my left knee dislocated and I was on the floor. The infirmary just as it was closing at 8:00pm so they took 2 x rays, gave me crutches and sent me on my way. Fortunately someone else in our party had rented a wheel chair she no longer needed, so I used it the rest of the cruise. I had to go back to the infirmary on Thursday morning as I was in too much pain to sleep and was not happy with the treatment I had received at first, no blood pressure was taken, only a small ace bandage was given to me (I needed an ankle to knee brace). The doctor I saw the first night only told me he saw nothing broken. They gave me a shot for pain and some muscle relaxers but did not explain anything about the injury. The entire leg was swollen up from knee to toes and I could not put any pressure on it at all. They were obviously concerned about liability, and I filled out a form stating that it was my own fault...no water on floor, or anything to trip on. I have to assume I'll get their bill in the mail, because we had no charges other than the deposit for crutches on our account while on the ship. I have to say, we have sailed only Princess and RCI up until this cruise, and Carnival did a fantastic job overall. The service by Hendra, our cabin steward was top notch, he was wonderful. I needed extra pillow following my accident and he did anything we needed happily for us. Also, I must mention a bar tender named Allan in the Mojito bar who was incredible. He remembered all 4 of our names after only seeing him on Sunday night for some marinis......he makes a great spicy chipotle martini....try one.

Our second port day in Cabo was pretty much cancelled due to a storm that blew in and they could not tender safely....it did not bother us as I was in a wheel chair anyways and could not leave the ship. It rained on and off in P.V. but we were on ship....

Debarkation went smooth as I needed assistance to get off, so our entire shark group waited in front theater together and all left at around 10:30am....

Overall Carnival did a great job, other than the splitting up our group for dining, and the infirmary issue, I think they may have treated me better if they thought they had some culpability in my accident though. Less